After a year of earthquakes and consequent aftermath grunge it is quite wonderful to be having exhibitions again.
So I am thrilled that En Masse, the first public exhibition by The Arthouse, will be opening this evening—the event begins at 5.30 pm, at 215 Woolridge Road, Harewood. (Please also refer to the map below this post.)
En Masse features new work from 16 of The Arthouse’s regular artists, including my friend and fellow Tuesday Poet, Claire Beynon from Dunedin. To find out more about Claire and her art, you can check out her blog, ‘… all finite things reveal infinitude …’.
But there is more.
On August 2, I posted The Sparrows, a poem in my Earthquake Witness sequence as my Tuesday poem. Claire was ” … already busy with a piece that has this atmosphere/bird-sky imagery in it” and asked to ” … make a painting prompted by the last two lines.”
The painting, which is the one featured above, ended being inspired by the first two lines (the painting around the last two lines may come later, Claire tells me) of The Sparrows and will be in the exhibition. And the full text of The Sparrows will be featured alongside the painting. I am very moved that the poem has “spoken” to Claire in such a profound way and am very much looking forward to every aspect of this evening: the En Masse exhibition, seeing Claire, and also seeing her wonderful artwork and my poem featured together.
And if any of you are in Christchurch and can make it along, that would be fabulous. Come over and say hello, too.
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Just as a bit more background, The Arthouse used to be located next door to the Christchurch Art Gallery (which is currently still being used as a base of operations by the Christchurch Earthquake Recovery Authority and the Christchurch City Council) in a very new building that survived September 4 but was rendered unusable by the February 22nd earthquake and may well be demolished. But like a great many enterprises in Christchurch, The Arthouse is refusing to be ‘down and done for.’ It is currently operating online and En Masse is just the first in a series of “pop up” exhibitions in real—as opposed to cyber—space to be developed over the next few months.
Just another sterling reason to support this exhibition—it’s all about getting our city back to the great living and cultural place it is meant to be.
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And here’s the map, so you know exactly where 215 Woolridge Road, Harewood is—and remember, the official opening is at 5.30 pm today, Friday 12.
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This month’s ” … on Anything, Really” feature is “Fun With Thornspell”—you can find out more here and here.